Conference Week

This is an exciting week for teachers and students.  Your kiddos have worked so hard during the 1st quarter of school.  Now we get to share all of their growth with you.  Here are some tips for conference week:

Remember that the kids get out of school 2 hours early, so please make sure to be at the bus stop or in the car line 2 hours earlier than normal.

Please be at your conference on time and be ready to end on time.  The conferences are 20 minutes long. 

Please complete and return the conference survey.  We will make sure that is put in the appropriate box in the front of the school if you return it in your child's folder.

When you get home from your conference, please celebrate your child's accomplishments with him/her.  Also go over any areas that may need help.  This is a great time to set some goals with your child.

FALLING in love with Kindergarten

Is it really October already?  We are seeing amazing growth from your kiddos!  They're having such fun exploring the world of Kindergarten.

Math:  We're working on decomposing numbers.  One strategy we're using is Number Bonds.  

Here are some examples:

    

Reading:  Most of the kids know where the front cover, back cover and title page are, so knowing where to start reading is the next important step.  We have stressed that the kids should point under words and track left to right as they read.   You can help your child by turning the page and pointing to the first word when you’re reading books together.  Then build to letting your child point to the place to start reading for you.  

Science:  We have been using our senses to explore different characteristics of pumpkins this week. We began by hiding the pumpkin in a bag/box to let the kids guess what we had.  We played 20 questions.  Explaining that the kids should ask a yes/no question was a fun challenge!!  Playing "I Spy" with your child will help increase your child's ability to ask good questions. 

Coming Up:

October 4

Ridenour Fall Festival
11-1 pm

October 10

Pettit Creek Farms Field Trip

October 14

All fundraiser packets/money due

October 20-24

Early Release/Conference Days

Happy Fall!

We hope you all had a wonderful Fall Break!  We all spent time Sharpening the Saw (Leader in Me translation:  relaxing, having fun, spending time with family and friends).

We're ready to jump back in to some serious learning with your kiddos!  We will be working on the following things:

Language Arts:  Letter and letter sound recognition, concepts of print (front/back of book & title page), listening to stories to tell "who" and "where" (who/what was in the story and where the story took place), sight word recognition

**Click here for "Have Fun Teaching" on YouTube.  They have great songs for learning letters, sounds and sight words.

**Another favorite is "Harry Kindergarten".  There are great songs for all kinds of kindergarten skills.

***Just a reminder to supervise your child anytime he/she is on YouTube.

Writing:  We're continuing to write about "small moments" that have taken place in our lives (narrative writing).  We're working to write about the feelings of the characters, remembering to tell the beginning, middle & end of the story and to include page numbers.

Math:  We have spent time working to learn our two-dimensional shapes (2D).  We are comparing them to each other (i.e. How are a square & triangle the same?  How are they different?)

Science:  We have learned to be scientists by examining the features of animals and how they are the same/different.  We are going to look at parent & baby animals (always a favorite!!).

Coming Up:
We are going to Pettit Creek Farms for a field trip on Friday, October 10.  Please watch your child's folder for a permission form.  This will be due by Wednesday, October 1.

Welcome to Hayes!

We are so excited that you're a part of our Hayes Elementary family. We are looking forward to an incredible year. Our goal is to update our blog weekly. If there is something you'd like to see, please leave us a comment.

Here are some important back to school pieces of information:

Please make sure that your Kindergartener is in the classroom by 7:50. He/she can either ride the bus or you can drop him/her off at the front of the school. Please do not walk your child to the classroom. If you have information for the teacher, please write a note and include it in the daily folder. Thank you!

If your child will be leaving school early, please send a note to school.  We will be sure to have him/her ready when the office calls.  If we are unaware that your child is leaving before dismissal, it will take us a few minutes to get him/her ready (cleaning up, marking in folder, packing up backpack).

Coming Up:

Open House - Tuesday, September 2

K-2 - 6:00pm - 6:45pm                         3-5 - 7:00pm - 7:45pm

You will start out by going directly to your child's classroom at 6:00pm. There will be a short televised PTSA meeting, followed by information from your child's teacher. All parents will be excused at 6:45pm (and the K-2 teachers will leave to make room for the 3-5 teachers in the parking lot). Parents with students in grades 3-5 can move to those classrooms.


Fall Picture Day - Wednesday, September 3
Wear your biggest smile! This is the photo that will go into the yearbook!


Progress Reports - Friday, September 12


Fall Break - Monday 9/15 - Friday 9/19